This is the black stink bug, Proxys punctulatus, a relatively benign insect found over most of the southern US and down into the Carribbean. It’s about 12mm long, black, with spotted black and cream legs, with a long, pointy face, banded antennae, and a black body with a single white spot in the middle. Like…
Tag: Insecta
Bothriocera Cognita
This tiny, black and white spotted cixiid planthopper does not seem to have a common name. Bothiocera cognita is about 3-5mm long, and appears to range through the southeastern US. Other than that, it’s a nondescript little planthopper, without even a Wikipedia entry. Planthoppers, in general, live on, and eat plants, eating the roots as…
Waterhyacinth Planthopper Nymph
Megamelus scutellaris, a native of South America, was released in Florida in 2010 as a biological control agent for waterhyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, an invasive aquatic plant. Waterhyacinth forms amalgamations on the water’s surface and blocks sunlight from reaching other plants below it, and depleting available oxygen in the water. Adult waterhyacinth planthoppers come in two…